Thai insurgents launch attacks in south, killing 2

The Associated Press

Islamic insurgents shot dead a villager and then detonated a car bomb as a crowd gathered, killing one and wounding 19 in Thailand's restive south on Sunday, police said.

Police Maj. Col. Manop Wiwatthanaviroj said insurgents shot a resident patrolling a village Sunday morning in the Yi-ngo district of Narathiwat, one of three mostly Muslim provinces near the Malaysian border.

A few minutes later, a car bomb went off in the same area, killing one villager and wounding 19 others, including a local government official, Manop said.

"Police believe the two incidents were related and that insurgents used the shooting to attract a crowd so they could inflict more casualties," Manop said.

An Islamic insurgency launched in 2004 has killed more than 3,400 in southern Thailand. The insurgents target Buddhists as well as Muslims whom they believe have collaborated with the Thai government.

The attacks are believed intended to frighten Buddhist residents into leaving. The insurgents have never publicly declared their exact goal, but they have complained about discrimination in Buddhist-dominated Thailand.

A massive government counterinsurgency effort has slowed the pace of attacks but has shown little sign of ending the violence. Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva announced in March that 4,000 more soldiers and other security personnel would be deployed to the region, supplementing more than 60,000 already there.

Abhisit acknowledged that the reinforcements were needed because of the failure to restore security.

The population in the three most troubled provinces, Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat, is more than 70 percent Muslim.